Is Anybody There? – 2008 | 94 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

John Crowley’s “Is Anybody There?” tells the surprising, touching story of the unlikely friendship that develops between a boy and an old man. Writer Peter Harness draws from his own experience growing up in a retirement home and the cutting dialogue prevents the film slipping into from sentimentality, despite this the story is formulaic and it’s left to the performances of an excellent cast to carry the film. Sir Michael Caine gives one of the finest performances of his career as an acerbic old performer, whilst there’s also strong support courtesy of Bill Milner’s wonderfully natural turn and veteran cameos from Peter Vaughn, Leslie Phillips and Sylvia Sims.

Set in 1980s seaside England, Clarence (Michael Caine) is a retired magician suffering from the onset of Alzheimer’s and reluctantly entering the family-run Lark Hall nursing home. The home owner’s son, Edward (Bill Milner), is an unusual ten year old loner obsessed with death and the supernatural and surreptitiously recording the residents in his search for answers. His overwhelmed parents are a stressed mother (Anne-Marie Duff) struggling to keep the business afloat, and a father (David Morrissey) coping with the onset of mid-life crisis. Edward and Clarence and Edward eventually bond; the teen helps the widower get over his wife’s passing, and the elderly gent teaches Edward something about life.